Chuck versus the Magnificent Seven
by PaBurke
Summary: Casey and Sarah are being held hostage in Denver so Chuck goes to the local talent AFT AU for assistance


Chuck vs the Magnificent 7

By PaBurke

Universes: Chuck (season one-ish) Magnificent 7 (MOG ATF version)

Summary: Sarah and Casey are in trouble in Denver, so Chuck finds the best people to help him… the Intersect CAN be helpful at times.

Rating: kid-friendly

Disclaimer: Not mine in any way, shape or form. No money was made.

Chuck rushed into the building, showed his ID –the fake one that Sarah had given him. He made it past the security and into the elevator. A secretary pointed the way to their offices. He was running when the wiry man with long hair appeared before him.

Chuck flashed and nearly fell: the longhaired man's name was Vin Tanner, sniper and tracker extraordinaire. Like Chuck's handlers, the man could knock Chuck out without warning.

"Hey," Tanner said.

"Oh, hi. I'm looking for Agent Larabee."

"Who's asking," demanded the man in black from the main office. Another flash: Chris Larabee, leader, strategist and a crack-shot. He was also a widower with a weakness for alcohol. He ran Team 7 of the Denver ATF with an iron hand.

Chuck fumbled with his ID and it fell on the ground. He picked it up and offered it to Larabee. Tanner took it out of his hand and read it carefully before handing it to the kid by the computer. "Charles Carmichael," he told them. "I'm the computer guy for my CIA team. I stay in the van. We were… undercover following a shipment of arms into the US and landed here. The rest of my team was captured but they managed to transmit a picture of another captive before… before, you get the picture. It was your man, Standish." Who apparently was a childhood friend of Sarah, which had been an interesting flash. "Help?"

The kid –JD Dunne, computer expert- nodded to Larabee. The ID must have held up to his search. Larabee didn't nod to Tanner, but some sort of signal was exchanged and Tanner let him pass.

"What can you tell us?" Again, it was a demand from Larabee.

Chuck surged forward and this time a mustached man –Buck Wilmington, explosives specialist and second in command (he was getting used to these short flashes and hey, they were useful)- stepped in front of Larabee to keep Chuck away. Chuck was stopping anyway. He pulled the laptop out of his bag and opened it on a nearby desk. A big, grey-haired man seated there was watching him carefully. Another flash. Josiah Sanchez was old enough to have a very interesting file; most notable at the moment was the fact that he was a profiler. Chuck hoped that he was hiding the flashes before turning the computer monitor to Larabee.

"This is the compound." He hit control-m and X's dotted the screen. "These are the… bad guys' normal placements." He hit control-f and a series of personnel files slid across the screen. "These are the men and their histories."

Larabee stepped close and Chuck stepped back. The man exuded malice worse than Casey. "Where is the compound?" he demanded. (Did the man do anything but I_demand_/I?) He was looking through everything and studying the compound blueprints. Larabee turned to glare at Chuck.

Chuck stepped back and ran into the last member of the team, Nathan Jackson, medic. Chuck had learned that those with medical knowledge were merely more effective at hurting. He slid away.

"Where?" Larabee growled. (Hey, he could do more than demand.)

"I'll tell you when you agree that I can come too. This is my team. I have to help them."

"You're in the van with JD."

"Yeah, yeah. I know that."

"You can come."

A smile a relief spread across Chuck's face. He held out his hand to shake with Larabee, but Larabee already had his back to him and Chuck let his hand drop awkwardly. He had been dismissed.

"Is there any cover?" Tanner was asking.

"Huh?" Chuck realized that the sniper was talking to him. "Cover, ah, right. Well, yeah. You can't see the compound from the road and the compound can't see the road either. Lots of trees and brush and hills. Big hills. I can loop their cameras with our van and Casey said that there were holes in their coverage." He was babbling and abruptly stopped.

Larabee had handed the computer off to Dunne and the next thing Chuck knew, hard copies of everything were getting passed around. Chuck was steered to an empty desk and he was pretty sure it was Standish's. It was neat and orderly with expensive tastes and completely impersonal, it reminded Chuck of Sarah's apartment. A copy of the blueprints were laid out in front of him.

"Make this into a topographical map." Yet another order from Larabee.

Chuck blinked at him.

"Show me the trees and hills," Tanner requested. He was firm, but quieter. Chuck didn't know how.

"Okay." Chuck grabbed the pens. He started slowly, but surely. As he started putting things in their place, it got easier to fill in the blank spaces. It was like a flash, only natural. This is what his recall was supposed to feel like and work. It was like playing a truly interesting computer game or fixing an interesting problem. He lost track of time, but that didn't worry him. When he was finished, he accidently met Sanchez's eyes again. Chuck quickly looked away. "That's everything."

"What's this?" Tanner tapped a symbol Chuck had added, a small square with a circle inside.

"That's where the cameras are."

"What's their directionality?"

Chuck added little arrows. "They are on swivels but the guards are lazy and someone decided that this way covered the most."

Tanner and Larabee leaned over the improved map and Chuck was edged out. He stepped back and again ran into Jackson.

"Do you have pictures of Ezra on your computer? How badly was he hurt?"

Chuck glanced at his laptop. "No. Not on there. In the van. He looked bad, but he told Sarah that he was fine."

Jackson rolled his eyes and finally Chuck relaxed. "Of course he said he was fine. Was he moving stiffly?"

"I don't know. A little? He didn't move much, but I can tell you the Garret is really free with his knives. He stabbed Casey!" Chuck started getting agitated. "Can we go save them now? Please?"

"You pick you entry point?" Larabee asked Tanner. The sniper pointed to the map. "Good," Larabee continued. "Lock and load. JD, Nate, you're in the CIA van. Carmichael 's driving. Buck, you're driving the second van."

Larabee turned on his heel and the office exploded into a flurry of action. Jackson had his medic bag in one hand and with the other was ushering Chuck out of the building. Chuck had time to grab his laptop, but just.

He was sitting in the van with Jackson when the second van pulled up behind him. Dunne jumped out of it, giving last minute instructions concerning the communications equipment before jumping in the back of Chuck's van. Dunne handed Chuck an earwig which he inserted immediately.

Larabee was already ordering him. "Drive, Carmichael."

"Ah, yessir." Chuck accidently put the van into drive when he needed to reverse. He tried to correct his mistake without blushing. Finally he was on the freeway heading west out of town. Jackson and Dunne were in the back reviewing the videos Chuck had of their teammate. They reported Standish's appearance to Larabee. Jackson said that Standish was in a bad way and he wanted an ambulance waiting as close as possible.

Larabee gave Jackson permission to make the call and then told Chuck to start speeding. If a cop pulled them over, they would use Dunne's ATF credentials and no one would know that the CIA had been operating where they were strictly not supposed to be.

Chuck started speeding in earnest: it was his team in trouble too.

In the back on his mind, Chuck realized that he could hear the rumble of Sanchez through the mikes, but not through the big man's own earwig. The profiler had to be telling part of his team what he thought of Chuck.

The Intersect could only hope that the profiler messed up his assessment. He didn't want to blow his cover. Finally they arrived. Chuck climbed into the back of the van and started looping the various camera feeds as before. He was changing what the security monitors saw and was watching the true camera video himself. It went faster than before since Dunne was as good as he was at this task. Jackson climbed out of the van and jacked up on corner of the van. That was Larabee's idea: if anyone questioned why there were two vans on the side of the road, it was because of mechanical troubles. And if there was a need for a quick getaway, a person could just drive off of a properly placed car-jack.

Chuck was listening as Tanner reported that he took out three of the sentries. He heard as Wilmington said that the west corner was ready to blow at Larabee's order. Then Larabee said, "Now JD."

And Chuck found himself I_handcuffed _/I to the van, specifically to the heavy iron brace that held up the bench for all the computers. It wasn't something he could jerk out of.

"Wait? What! NO!" Chuck jerked at the cuffs uselessly. "Why?" he finally asked.

Dunne was smirking a bit. "Josiah said that you didn't stay in the van very well. Chris wanted to make sure that you stayed put for him."

"Nononono." Chuck knew that he was merely reinforcing Sanchez's assessment and Larabee's judgment, but Chuck hated being restrained while his team was in danger.

Larabee reported that they were almost to the compound prison area and that Jackson could follow them now, if he kept on hand on his knives. Chuck felt justified in his fear of the medic.

Then through the camera monitors, he saw someone running for the back fence.

He flashed.

Patrick MacNeice. IRA arms man.

FULCRUM.

Why was FULCRUM here? Had he seen Sarah and Casey?

Nasty, nasty man who would be selling his firearms to this group that ATF Team 7 had crashed through, but he was getting away with his guns. They were losing him.

"No, no, no," Chuck started chanting again. It was a test and Dunne was ignoring him.

Good.

He heard Sarah and Casey's voice over Larabee's mike. They were safe. They were asking where Chuck was. Casey was chuckling when he heard how Larabee had had him handcuffed.

Chuck had his hand free and had Dunne handcuffed in his place just before Sarah admitted that she had given him a handcuff key because of his perchance of getting captured.

Chuck was out of the van and running in the direction MacNeice had taken. Dunne was reporting it. Sanchez and Wilmington were closing in on his position. Tanner was the one that most worried Chuck.

Chuck stumbled on a root and crashed into a tree branch and wished for a city. He kept on running. He wanted to be near MacNeice when Larabee's men caught up to him.

There. MacNeice was just ahead.

"Hey," Chuck yelled.

MacNeice turned and shot at Chuck, but Chuck knew how to duck. His goal was to slow the man down. In his earwig, Tanner asked for a distraction. Wilmington blew up part of the compound. Chuck instinctively ducked. When he looked up again, Tanner had MacNeice disarmed and restrained.

Tanner motioned for Chuck to lead the way back to the compound and Chuck cheerfully did. Then Tanner reported the capture of the arms dealer and of Chuck.

Sarah and Casey met them before they returned to the compound. In between chiding him about getting out of the van, Chuck managed to hint that they wanted to take custody of the FULCRUM agent.

Casey went ahead to negotiate with Larabee. Sarah used Chuck's phone to call up the general and request a team to transfer MacNeice. The general had been waiting for her call and ordered a team out to them immediately. She was also a bit peeved with Chuck going to the ATF instead of her for assistance.

Chuck didn't regret his decision. He knew that the ATF team would be more interested in getting the hostages out alive. He shook hands with the AFT guys and kinda-sorta apologized to Dunne for the way that he returned the handcuffs. Dunne accepted it in good grace, though he did not apologize in return as he had been following orders.

Casey managed to keep custody of the FULCRUM agent and the Intersect team was long gone before the ambulance and the clean up crew could arrive. Standish must have been alright, since he was involved in some big dust-up only a month later. Chuck read about it on an online news bulletin.

Chuck thought that the case had been a lot of trouble and a lot of near-death experiences but it was par for the course. He was just glad that the Magnificent 7 had been close enough to help.


End file.
